Motorola’s Droid, Verizon’s answer to the iPhone, was ranked the No. 1 gadget of 2009 by Time Magazine Wednesday. Apple’s iconic cell phone finished in fourth place, behind Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader and Dyson’s $300 Air Multiplier fan. Is the Droid winning the buzz war for the hippest handset?

“The Droid is a hefty beast, a metal behemoth without the gloss and finish of the iPhone, but you don’t miss it,” according to the magazine. The entry is praised for its “phenomenally sharp and vivid” touchscreen and its connection to AT&T rival Verizon Wireless. “Best of all, the Droid is on Verizon’s best-of-breed 3G network. It’s Android’s first credible challenge to the iPhone,” said the writers.The magazine said the Droid’s physical keyboard was “not great, but good enough.”

The iPhone 3GS didn’t go unnoticed, however. The magazine noted the improvements made since the original iPhone was launched.

“Yes, the 3GS has a better camera – with video. And it has a compass and voice control. Those are all improvements over the original. But the main point of, and the best thing about, the new iPhone is speed. It has more of it. Period,” according to Time.

The magazine becomes the latest signal the Droid may be finding traction against the iPhone’s image. A recent ad campaign by Motorola attempted to define the iPhone as a “digitally clueless beauty pageant queen” with the Droid a rough-and-tumble rival. The Droid also appears to be gaining greater favor with men over 18-years old, according to a recent brand survey.

About the author

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address) | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.